


a readiness of things

by younglegends



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Gen, Groundhog Day, Temporary Character Death, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 02:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15133076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/younglegends/pseuds/younglegends
Summary: “There’s got to be something you’re not telling us.”They don't get it right, the first time.





	a readiness of things

            I got a hand  
            So I got a fist  
            So I got a plan

            — [WOLF PARADE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkgqrxkEbW4)

 

**00**

Zack wakes up. Prepares his mom’s medicine and breakfast, goes to school just to sleep through every one of his classes, and runs into Trini on his way to the caves. “You’re late,” he tells her, on the cliff. Sun beating down into their eyes.

She stares at him. “You’re literally arriving at the exact same time as I am.”

“No, I’m not,” he says with a smirk, and nosedives off the cliff. Somehow she still beats him to the ship. Damn it. He walks into the caves just in time to see Kimberly deliver a punch that sends Jason flying into the wall, and wolf whistles on instinct.

“You’re late,” Jason says from the ground, not even winded. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown.

Zack points at Trini, incredulous. “So is she!”

“We gotta use all the time we can,” Billy’s saying, brow furrowed, “’cause we’re running out of it, fast.” All eyes turn to the eleven notches scratched into the rock wall.

“Not doing us a lot of good, though, is it,” Zack says, scratching at the back of his head. “I mean, what’re we gonna do? Fistfight Rita to the death?”

“Great,” Kimberly says, rolling her eyes. “With that kind of attitude we’re _definitely_ doomed.”

Apparently Alpha 5 thinks so, too, because he’s pulling out the big guns, now. “What you find beyond this wall,” he tells them after training practice for the day, “will forever change your lives.”

Except it doesn’t, and this seems to make Zordon very upset.

“If you can’t morph,” Zordon booms, “you are not Rangers. Go home, all of you.”

Fair enough, Zack thinks, and goes home. Falls asleep and never gets the chance to wake back up again.

Except, then, he does—

 

**01**

Zack wakes up. Can’t quite remember his dream. Prepares his mom’s medicine and breakfast and doesn’t realize anything’s off until he gets to school. He squints at the chalkboard, which says the date is yesterday.

“Dude,” he says to the teacher. “You got the date wrong.”

The teacher doesn’t look very impressed. “I most certainly did not,” he says. “Aren’t you in the wrong class?”

Snickers break out across the classroom. Assholes. He is in the wrong class, though. Could’ve sworn he had math first on Wednesdays, but then again it’s been a while since he paid attention to school. He must’ve missed when they changed the schedule system. He slips into his history class ten minutes after the bell, stares at the board that’s also displaying the wrong date, and shrugs. Goes to sleep.

He runs into Trini on his way to the caves. “We have got to stop meeting like this,” Zack says. Sun beating down into their eyes.

She stares at him. “Like what?”

He points at her accusingly. “You’re late! Again!”

“You’re literally arriving at the exact same time as I am.”

Zack opens his mouth, then closes it again when he finds he has nothing to say—because he’s already said it before. “Dude,” he says. “Déjà vu or what?”

Trini looks at him like he’s speaking an alien language. “Did you hit your head too hard in training yesterday?”

“Very funny,” he tells her, but she’s already diving off the cliff. Damn it.

He walks into the caves just in time to see Kimberly deliver a punch that sends Jason flying into the wall. Zack wolf whistles, again. “Remind me to never get on your bad side,” he says, and Kimberly looks pleased.

“You’re late,” Jason says from the ground, not even winded. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown.

“Thanks, man,” Zack says, feigning surprise, “I hadn’t noticed. What would I ever do without you?”

“We gotta use all the time we can,” Billy says, brow furrowed, “’cause we’re running out of it, fast.” All eyes turn to the eleven notches scratched into the rock wall.

“You forget to add yesterday, or what?” Zack says.

Jason squints at him. “What?”

Zack scratches at the back of his head. He’s starting to get a headache. “Never mind,” he says.

Practice goes smoother than usual. He must be getting better at reading the others’ fighting styles, predicting their movements. No one can land a hit on him, not today. It’s almost like he knows what they’re going to do before they even do it.

“Dang,” Billy says appreciatively. “You are _on_ today, Zack.”

Funny, because Zack feels off, and the headache only gets worse when Alpha 5 approaches them. “What you find beyond this wall,” he says, “will forever change your lives.”

“What, the zords?” Zack says. “Didn’t work, remember?”

“The what?” Billy says.

Alpha 5 swivels around to stare at Zack. “How do you already know about them?”

“Of course we know about them,” Zack says, “you just showed us yesterday,” and everyone is staring at him, now. There’s been a lot of people looking at him like that, lately. Like he’s crazy. He’s used to it, by now, but for once he hasn’t even done anything to deserve it, and it sends his defensive hackles rising. “What, come on! You can’t have forgotten! The badass dinosaur robots? Remember? What is _with_ all of you today—”

“I never showed them to you,” Alpha 5, his freaky orange eyes unblinking, and Zack gets a very, very bad feeling.

“Guys,” he says. “Uh, quick question. What day is it?”

“It’s Tuesday,” Billy says, very slowly, as though it’s some kind of trick.

“Did you hit your head for real?” Trini says.

“Zack,” Jason says, and he sounds genuinely concerned. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Zack says, a little too quickly. “Just got a bit of a headache. It’s kind of messing things up in my mind, I guess. I’m getting confused, or whatever, don’t mind me, go on, forget I said anything.”

“Wait a minute,” Kimberly says, eyes narrowing as though to catch him out. “You’re holding back. Something’s clearly up with you. What is it?”

_I’m going crazy,_ Zack thinks, _for real this time, for good._ “Nothing,” he says, “I just—I just had this weird dream, and I could’ve sworn—I thought it was Wednesday.” He shrugs. “Nothing’s up. What was that cool thing you were gonna show us, Alpha 5?”

Except Alpha 5’s eyes are still on him. “In order to morph,” he says, “you have to be open with each other,” and oh, great, Zack’s really done it this time. A lifetime of keeping his head down, minding his own business, blending into the background like a shadow, and now he’s opened his big mouth, got himself surrounded on all sides with no way out. Everyone staring him down, waiting for him to have something to show, when he’s got nothing.

“If you can’t even tell us the truth,” Kimberly says, “how are we supposed to be a team?”

“Hey,” Trini cuts in, surprisingly sharp, “he doesn’t wanna talk about it, whatever. It’s his business, not yours.”

“Uh, yes it _is,_ when it concerns this, when it concerns all of us!” Kimberly’s rounded on Trini now, eyes flashing. “We’re supposed to be in this together, in case you haven’t realized yet!”

“Come on,” Jason says, “Rita is _literally_ going to end the world as we know it, we can’t get hung up over shit like this—”

“Uh, guys,” Billy says. “Can we not fight?”

And then Zordon’s voice is booming over all of them, heavy with an all-too-familiar disappointment. “If you can’t morph,” he says, “you are not Rangers. Go home, all of you.”

Which leaves Zack standing there in the middle of the shitstorm he’s stirred up. Fuck this, he thinks, and gets the hell out of there. He chalks it all up to a very strange fever dream and goes to bed. Falls asleep and never gets the chance to wake up again.

Except—

 

**02**

Zack wakes up. Can’t quite remember his dream. He cracks open the blinds and peers outside. Everything looks like just another normal day in Angel Grove, except two weeks ago he found a glowing coin that gave him magical abilities meant to help him defeat an alien intent on world destruction, so that really doesn’t mean much. There are still eggs in the fridge, though he should’ve run out by now, and the amount of pills left in his mom’s prescription bottle is the same as yesterday. At school, he shows up at history class on a hunch, or more like a sinking feeling. His teacher is writing the date on the board. It is, apparently, still Tuesday.

So that’s it, then. The same day is repeating, over and over. Or this is all just part of a very long, _very_ fucked up nightmare. Either way, the bottom line is the same: nothing that happens will really happen. Which is to say that Zack can do anything and still get away with it all.

To put his theory into practice, Zack walks straight up to the front of the classroom, grabs the chalk from his teacher’s hand mid-lecture, and draws a dick on the board.

The class is torn between shock and laughter. His teacher, red-faced and spluttering, tells him to go to the principal’s office. Except Zack’s a superhero, and the laws of time and relativity don’t apply to him, not anymore. He can go anywhere in the world he wants.

Zack goes home. “Mom,” he says, “you really gotta see this, I have something cool I wanna show you.”

She blinks at him from her bed. “What’s wrong,” she says, “why aren’t you in school?”

“Look at what I can do,” he says, and pulls out his coin.

In hindsight, climbing out the window and jumping over their trailer probably wasn’t the best way to introduce her to his powers. “Zack,” she says, after he’s crawled back in and calmed her down. She clutches at his face, holds him tight. “Zack. How did this happen? What’s going on? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Mom,” Zack says, and holds her back, just as tight. “I’m better than fine—I’m _great._ I have a purpose in life, now. I just wanted you to know.”

“I don’t understand,” she says. There are tears in her eyes. From shock, maybe, or fear. Or wonder.

“It’s okay,” Zack says. “You don’t have to understand. I just wanted you to know it, at least once. I wanted to be the one to tell you the story.”

Later that day, he decides to show up to the caves, just for the hell of it. He catches Trini on the cliffs. “You’re late,” he shouts, already going over the edge. Victory is sweet, as is getting there in time to catch Jason before he slams into the wall.

“You good?” Zack says, slapping him on the back.

“You’re late,” Jason says. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “Were you at school today? I didn’t see you.”

“Oh, come on,” Zack says, as Trini files in with a scowl. “Why do you always have to single _me_ out?”

“We gotta use all the time we can,” Billy says, brow furrowed—

“—’cause we’re running out of it, fast,” Zack says. “Yeah, got that, thanks, Billy. Can we get started already?”

He kicks ass at practice. Shows believable awe at the zords. Follows the others out after Zordon throws his predictable tantrum. He should do something, Zack thinks, something really awesome, something really stupid, something that’ll shock the rest of them for sure, but they’re already gone before he can think of it. Whatever. He’s still wired up on energy, riding the rush of a good wave of adrenaline, so he spends a good couple of hours jumping over the trees and clifftops in the mine, racing his own self just to feel the wind whip past his face, and when he gets bored he goes and spends all his cash on fast food. Tells the server to keep the change. God, he’s always wanted to do that. He’s sitting on a rooftop munching curly fries in the middle of the night when he hears the first rumble from the distance and remembers Rita Repulsa like the first strike of lightning in a storm.

“Oh, shit,” Zack says, as the earth cracks itself open.

Turns out the reason he never lives past this day is because he’s _dead_ at the end of it.

 

**03**

Zack wakes up. Can’t quite remember his dream. Something about—earth and fire. Crumbling to dust. “Okay,” he tells himself, “okay, don’t freak out. You can do this. You can.”

He goes and finds Jason, because he’s the obvious answer. Blinking at him in confusion in the hallway. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “You’re not in my class,” he says, and Zack grabs his arm, pulls him back from entering the classroom.

“Hey,” he says, “listen, I’m in a time loop, and this is the day it all goes to shit. Rita’s gonna find the crystal and end the world. It happens today, and we have to stop it.”

“If this is a joke,” Jason says, “it’s not funny,” but he must be able to tell from the look on Zack’s face, because Zack can _see_ the moment he really gets it, eyes hardening, spine ever so slightly straightening. Zack doesn’t know why he’s relieved, let alone surprised. He should have expected this. What little it takes to get Jason to believe in something.

“Wow, okay,” Jason says, and then repeats, one more time, as though to himself, “okay. Let’s go find the others.”

The others, who need a lot more convincing, all arguing with each other at once in the ship until Zack gets impatient and says, “The zords.”

“The what?” Billy says.

“The zords,” Zack says, looking straight at Alpha 5, who’s gone ghostly still. “You were gonna show them to us today, right? Some last minute motivation to get us to morph? Except it didn’t work. It won’t work. We need something better.”

“You have no chance against Rita if you cannot morph,” Zordon booms, sounding even more grim than usual. “That is your only hope.”

They stay in the caves all day and night and try combat training as usual. Trust falls off the cliffs. Holding hands in front of the morphing grid and praying really hard. Nothing works, and no one has any better ideas. Not even Jason.

“There’s got to be some kind of instruction manual that comes with this shit,” Zack says, turning on Zordon. He wants to tear out his hair in frustration. “ _Morphing 101? How To Be A Power Ranger?_ What the fuck are you even _good_ for if you can’t teach us what you’re supposed to? It’s your only job!”

“The problem lies not with me,” Zordon snaps, “but with you _._ All of you. None of you have given up enough.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” Zack says. “You don’t know anything!”

“No,” Zordon says, “ _you_ don’t,” and he almost sounds— _sad._ “That is the problem.”

“I’ll show you a problem,” Zack says, stalking forward, and Jason stops him with an arm blocking his chest.

“None of this is helping,” he says. “We have to focus. Come on—” And he turns to look at Zack like _he’s_ the answer. “There’s got to be something. You’ve got to know something. There’s got to be something you’re not telling us.”

“All I know is that we’re _fucked,_ ” Zack says, and then something occurs to him. “Hey, I’ve got a better question. Why isn’t it you?”

“What?”

“You heard me,” Zack says. “Why isn’t this freaky time loop shit happening to _you?_ ”

“Why should it be,” Jason says, confused, and oh hell no, he’s not going to stand here and fucking pretend—

“ _You’re_ the one who wanted this,” Zack says.

But Jason’s shaking his head, staring at him in honest-to-god surprise.

“It’s got to be you for a reason, Zack,” Jason says, and Zack throws up his hands.  

“Fuck,” Zack says, “why do I even care,” and that’s when Rita Repulsa bursts through the cave walls and descends upon them.

Everyone is shouting, moving all at once, but later Zack will only remember one thing: the tip of Rita’s spear sharp against his neck as Billy screams the answer with panic in his eyes.

Oh, Zack thinks wildly against the sear of pain opening at his throat, he knew this whole time— _Billy,_ he’s the answer—

 

**04**

Zack wakes up and can’t quite remember his dream. Earth and fire, collapsing into each other, crumbling everything into dust. He shakes the afterimage away. Goes to find Billy.

“You figured it out, huh?” Zack says.

Billy blinks at him. “Zack? You’re _early_ to school?”

Zack slides his face into his hands. “Wow,” he says, “yes, Billy, that’s the important thing here, you’re right. No. The _crystal,_ Billy. You found it.”

Billy’s eyes go round as coins. “Shh!” he says, eyes darting around the hallway. “What if someone hears you?”

“What? Oh, come _on_ —nobody cares—Billy, I’m _saying_ that you found it, okay? It’s got to be you. You’re the answer.”

For once Billy finally quiets. Stares at him and says, slowly, “The answer to what?”

Zack puts on a grin. “All of this,” he says.

“Wait,” Billy says, and he’s looking at him, now, really looking at him with a frown on his face, eyes narrowed like he’s just another puzzle to solve. “Zack. How’d you know I found it?”

The sing of metal against his neck. “It’s got to be you,” Zack says, again, through the grin straining his jaw.

They find the others and gather under the bleachers of the school field. They could go to the caves, of course, but Zack doesn’t really want to go back there, not yet. Earth and fire. Collapsing into each other. He shakes his head to clear away the memory and slides his hands into his pockets.

“Listen,” he says, over the arguing of everyone else. “It’s simple. Billy knows where the crystal is, so he’s gotta do something. Hide it. Steal it. Protect it—I don’t know. But you’re the key, you’ve got to be.”

“I can’t do any of that,” Billy says. “Are you crazy? It’s buried _under_ the ground—”

“Look,” Jason’s saying. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “Everything depends on whether or not Rita gets the crystal, so as long as she never finds it, we’re fine, right?”

“Solid plan,” Trini says. “Just hope Rita doesn’t do anything. Great.”

“We just have to—not tell her,” Zack says, throat dry. When he woke up in the morning he couldn’t remember how to breathe. It felt like forever before his body figured out he wasn’t choking on blood but air. Even now when he presses his palm to his neck he can feel his pulse ready to beat right out of his skin. “No matter what. Even if we die. Maybe that’s the answer. We have to die without telling her. Then the secret dies with us.”

Silence. He looks up. They’re all staring at him.

“Zack,” Jason says. Cautious, as though approaching an animal in the wild. “You okay?”

They don’t remember what it’s like, Zack thinks distantly. His hand’s still on his neck. He puts it back into his pocket. “Yeah,” he says. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

They’re still staring. “It won’t work,” Billy says eventually. “Rita. She’ll just dig up the whole town searching for it. Zack,” he says, and something about it is awfully frank. “Whatever the answer is, it isn’t dying.”

“Of course,” Zack says. He can taste copper in his mouth.

“The town,” Jason says suddenly. “That’s it. We’ve got to save the town.”

“Uh, yeah,” Trini says, “that’s what we’re trying to do, here—”

“No,” Jason says, “I mean, we’ve got to _warn_ the town. We’ve got to get everybody out of here. Then when Rita comes—at least no one’ll get killed.”

God, Zack thinks, how did he ever believe Jason was the answer. “Are you stupid?” he says. “How is that going to make any difference? The whole _world’s_ gonna end when Rita comes—”

He gets that far before realizing someone else is talking too. Kimberly with her eyes rolled up to the sky. “Right, Jason,” she says, “let me just walk up to Amanda and tell her she’s got to get the hell out of here before an alien destroys the town, sure. That’s going to go over _so_ well.”

The thought comes to Zack and is out of his mouth before he can stop it. “Do you even _want_ to save this town?”

Kimberly stops short, like he’s slapped her. “What?”

“Just seems to me,” Zack says with a vindictive shrug, “that you’re holding back. C’mon, be honest. Hey, do these words ring a bell— _if you can’t even tell us the truth, how are we supposed to be a team?_ ”

“What are you talking about?” Kimberly says. “You don’t even _know_ me, shut up—”

“No,” Zack says, “I don’t, but you’re so damn easy to read.” Standing there, hair cut short and fists clenched, eyes slitted under the cracks of light running through the rows of bleachers overhead. Trying _so_ hard to be seen. And for what? For what, if not this?

“Uh, guys,” Billy says. “Can we not fight?”

“This is wasting time,” Trini says, cutting through the rest of them. “Why don’t you just tell us what you know?”

“What I know?” Zack says. “Oh, let me think. Well, you’re late to training, and Jason gets his ass kicked by Kimberly. We can’t morph, no matter how hard we try. Rita finds the ship and forces Billy to tell her where the crystal is. Also there are these dinosaur robots we’re apparently supposed to be able to control, except, oh wait, we can’t morph. Did I mention that?”

“C’mon,” Billy says. “Maybe there’s something you’ve forgotten. Maybe there’s something you’re not telling us.”

“I _told_ you! Nothing works because we can’t morph!”

“Well, if that’s the problem, we should be trying to fix it,” Kimberly says. She doesn’t look at Zack. Whatever. She toes at a cigarette butt on the ground with her shoe. “Can we get out of here already?”

The caves are intact, as is the ship. Zack shouldn’t have expected anything else. He should know how this works, by now. Still, he finds himself hesitating before he enters. The rock walls around them might as well be a grave. Earth and fire.

“Isn’t there another way,” Jason’s saying to Alpha 5. “If we could use the zords, maybe we’d have a chance—”

“You cannot be one with the zords until you have your armor,” Zordon booms. “And you cannot have your armor until you morph. This is your only hope.”

“Man, I’m getting real tired of hearing that,” Zack says. But the others are getting ready to train, and Zack shrugs. Steels himself to join their lost cause.

It isn’t time, he thinks, later, slumped by the morphing grid with sweat in his eyes. Time isn’t the problem here. All the time in the world doesn’t make a difference if they’re just going to do the same things over and over again. Something has to change. There’s got to be something he can change.

“Billy,” Zack says. “When Rita comes. You can’t tell her.”

Billy huffs out a breath. “Uh, right,” he says. “Sure. But something tells me she’s real persuasive.”

Blood in his mouth. “You can’t,” Zack insists.

“It won’t matter, anyway,” Billy says. “She’ll find it eventually. She’ll kill everyone to get to it, and we can’t let that happen.”

Billy’s lying spread-eagled on the floor of the ship, staring up at the ceiling. Kimberly and Trini are still sparring, and Jason’s somewhere in the distance, arguing with Alpha 5. Zack presses his cheek against the cool metal of the wall. The cold sinks into him like a burn.  

“Zack?” Billy’s saying. Might have been saying for a while. He must be more tired than he thought. “Zack—listen to me, hey. It’s okay. It’s gonna be okay.”

Zack peels his face from the wall just to shoot him an incredulous look. “How the hell is any of this okay?”

“It’s a loop,” Billy says. “Right? That’s what you told us. It’s a loop, so it’ll reset. Don’t you see? It’s given us another chance. Zack—it’s given _you_ another chance.”

“Oh, fantastic,” Zack says. “Well, I didn’t ask for another chance! I didn’t ask for any of this! What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

“You have to believe it, Zack,” Billy says, and how can he even say that, it’s the end of the _world._ “You can’t give up.”

Zack can’t help but snort at that, laughter chafing in his throat. “Yeah, that’s how this works, Billy,” he says. “I really can’t give up, because I’m not allowed to,” and that’s when Rita Repulsa bursts through the cave walls and descends upon them.

“Shit,” Zack says, he lost track of time, so stupid, but when Rita’s spear comes for him he’s ready for it, ducking low and out of the way—

—only to be slammed against the wall so hard his bones rattle in his body. Like his mom’s bottle of pills, he has time to think, before the pain hits. Rita fists her hand in his hair, drags him up off the floor. Delicately places the tip of her spear against his neck.

Everyone is shouting, moving all at once, but Zack only has eyes for Billy. “Billy,” he says, even as the bob of his throat sends the sharp edge digging into his skin. Blood in his mouth. “Billy, you can’t—”

Billy shakes his head. It’s funny, but Zack thinks this is the first time since all this began that he doesn’t look scared. “This isn’t the answer, Zack,” he shouts over the chaos of everything else. “You gotta find the right one.”

“No,” Zack says— _no_ —

 

**05**

Zack wakes up and can’t quite remember his dream. Earth and fire collapsing into each other, burning everything up like blood. Crumbling into dust. He crawls out of bed and throws up in the bathroom. Wipes his mouth with his knuckles.

You have to believe it, he remembers.

“Fuck,” Zack says aloud.

But it also gets him thinking.

“Fuck,” Zack says, again, and drags himself up off the bathroom floor.

Kimberly’s locker is full of death threats, but somehow Zack’s the one she eyes suspiciously as she approaches, like he’s some animal that crawled in from the gutter to die at her feet. “What are you doing here?” she says.

He’s still stuck on reading the scrawls on her locker door. _DIE UGLY BITCH,_ someone’s written. _NO ONE WILL CARE._ Blood in his mouth.

“Do you?” Zack says without really thinking about it, which is how he says most things, to be fair. Maybe he should start. Thinking before he speaks, that is. He has the time for it now, at any rate.

“Do I what?” Kimberly says, opening her locker. Zack has to jerk back to avoid the door smacking into his nose.

“Do you care,” he says to the locker door in his face. “If you die.”

The door slams shut. Kimberly stares at him. “What is _wrong_ with you,” she says, face twisting with hurt, and wow, Zack hadn’t thought something like that would be easy.

“I don’t mean,” Zack says, scrambling to fix it, hands held up in surrender. “I just. Billy said we have to believe it, and I’m thinking that maybe we don’t. Maybe that’s why we can’t morph.”

Kimberly is still staring at him. He’s been stared at so much since this whole thing started, but this time it actually feels like Kimberly is trying to _see_ him. “Zack,” she says. “I asked you a question. Why are you here? Is something wrong?”

Has anything ever been _right,_ Zack doesn’t say. He’s long learned how to live with a bone just out of place, the years of decay that grow around the open wound. Maybe it’s only now all catching up to him. His mind finally giving out. It would explain everything. Aloud he says, “Uh, it’s the end of the world, Kimberly. Where the fuck have you been?”

She’s still watching him. Waiting for an answer; for him to have something to show.

“It’s kind of a long story,” he says at last. “Can we get the others?”

They don’t go down to the caves. Instead they’re gathered in Billy’s house, poring over his maps while Zack tries not to knock anything over. Billy’s workspace is an organized sort of clutter: everything has its place. Zack wonders where they fit in, the four of them crammed into the room with him, elbows digging into each other and all talking at once.

“We know where the crystal is,” Billy says. “She doesn’t. That’s our advantage. We can’t let her take it away from us.”

“We can’t morph,” Zack says.

“Yeah,” Jason says. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “But we can still fight.”

It’s probably the stupidest thing Zack’s ever heard. But Billy’s voice is still ringing in his ears. _You have to believe it._

“We’ll be ready for her,” Jason’s saying, and Zack tries, he really does. But there’s blood in his mouth and he can’t get the taste out.

“Okay,” Kimberly says, voice shaky as though from surprise at her own resolution. “Let’s do it.”

Zack blinks at her. “Wait, really?”

“What,” Kimberly says. “Isn’t this what you were asking? If I care?”

“I asked—” Zack remembers. “Do you even want to save this town,” he repeats.

“I have to,” Kimberly says, eyes flashing.

Huh. So she isn’t the answer, then. Which leaves the question of who is.

His eyes slant over to Trini. Awfully quiet, in the corner.

Oh. Well, he probably should’ve seen that one coming.

There’s a knock on the door. Billy’s mom is peering through the doorway, looking very interested in what they’re up to.

“Can I get you all anything to drink?” she says.

Zack stares at her. In his head echoes the rattling of a pill bottle, almost emptied. Jason clears his throat.

“No, thank you, Mrs. Cranston,” he says, sweet as hell. “We’ll be getting out of your hair soon.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” Mrs. Cranston says. “I can’t remember the last time Billy had friends over.”

The pills are still rattling in Zack’s head, but he gets oddly stuck on that word. Friends. Is that what they are? Friends don’t have to save the world and watch each other die. That isn’t part of the definition. He doesn’t really know anything about them, except for things like what fear looks like in Kimberly’s eyes and what Billy sounds like when he screams. They’ve skipped past friendship into something else. Something far more dangerous, and lonely, too.

“Thanks, Mom,” Billy says, “but we gotta go,” and Zack snaps out of it just in time to see Trini staring after Billy’s mom retreating down the hallway with the same look on her face as him. Like she’s both realized and lost something all in the same measure. Then she catches him watching, and looks away.

They wait for Rita in the ship. Again. Zack hadn’t liked it, but anywhere else would be too public. Too many people to get caught in the crossfire. The others are getting ready to fight, discussing their plans. Except Trini. She’s hanging back, staring at Zack.

“What’s up, crazy girl,” Zack says. A flash of muscle memory. “You’re late.”

Trini narrows her eyes at him as he laughs at his own inside joke.

“You don’t seem like you’re particularly worried about what comes next,” she says.

He isn’t. He knows how this ends. Earth and fire and blood in his mouth. The thing is, he’s known it for a while, long before this time loop business ever started. Good to know for once the universe is set on proving him right.

“Why is this happening to you?” Trini says.

Finally, someone asking the right questions. Zack shrugs. “Shit luck,” he says.

“Do you remember what you were saying to Kimberly,” Trini says. “What you asked her.”

“What,” Zack says. “If she wanted to save this town?”

“Yeah,” Trini says. “Ever asked it to yourself?”

Zack freezes. “What do you mean—”

_You have to believe it,_ Billy says in his head, the dead Billy, and maybe that’s what killed him, that Zack didn’t. Still doesn’t.

“I’m trying to save our asses, aren’t I,” Zack says, “you’re the one who doesn’t even want to be here, you don’t even care—”

“Yeah, didn’t think so,” Trini says. “Hey, I mean it. Think about it. Why do you think this is happening to _you?_ ”

He stares at her. She stares back. The truth between them like the plummet down the cliff, that first day, that first time, roaring in his ears. He should never have been looking for an answer, but for a problem. And the problem isn’t any of them—it’s himself. That’s why this didn’t happen to Jason, or Billy, or anyone else. Because it’s his mistake. It must be.

But then again, Zack thinks he might have known that all along, too. Inevitable as the end of the world.

“I’m saying you can fix it,” Trini says, and the words rattle in his head like pills in a bottle, _fix it, fix it._ It’s his to fix.

Of course that’s when Rita bursts through the cave walls and descends upon them. He should be ready for this by now, he really should, but somehow he finds himself in Rita’s grip again. God, her nails are really sharp. And her breath stinks.

“Your breath stinks,” he tells her. Blood in his mouth.

“Come on, Zack,” he can hear Trini’s yell, “ _fight_ —”

 

**06**

Zack wakes up and he can’t quite remember his dream, but he’s got a crazy idea in his head. Maybe, just maybe, he was never supposed to tell any of them about this. It’s his mistake to fix, after all. And when he does involve them, they end up on the ship, where Rita always finds them. A dead end. But when he doesn’t—those first times, when everything first started to repeat—something happened that Zack doesn’t know about. How had Rita found the crystal, that very first time?

It kills him, but he goes to school. To his annoyance, he finds that he can’t quite sleep through his classes like he used to. Every time he closes his eyes he’s overcome with sensory overload. The fall down the cliffs. Blood in his mouth. Fire and earth. He walks out halfway through his first class without hearing his teacher calling after him.

He spends the day lurking down by the docks. Maybe he’ll find Rita before she finds them. His search turns up nothing but the smell of fish clinging to his clothes. He doesn’t want to go down into the caves, but he also can’t stand to have Jason call him late again, so he’s the first one there.

“You’re early,” Jason says when Zack walks in, visibly surprised. He’s with Kimberly and Billy, setting their packs on the floor. “Were you at school today? I didn’t see you.”

“Hm,” Zack says noncommittally, and then, “think fast!”

Jason dodges his punch. Grabs his arm and uses his momentum to flip him onto the ground.

“Figures,” Zack says to the ceiling, and then Jason’s face swims into view. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown.

“What was that for?” Jason says.

“Nothing,” Zack says. “Let’s get this training started.”

He gets his ass kicked in training even though he’s been through it so many times before. Precisely because he’s been through it so many times before. His heart’s not in it because none of it means anything, anyway. Also, he can’t quite stop himself from trying to keep the cave walls in his periphery at all times. Just in case.

“What is _wrong_ with you today,” Kimberly says after she sends him flying into the wall for the third time in a row.

“Woke up on the wrong side of bed,” Zack says with a shrug. His bones sinking into the ache like welcoming an old friend.

“It’s like you don’t even care,” Kimberly says, rolling her eyes. “With that kind of attitude we’re _definitely_ doomed.”

“We gotta use all the time we can,” Billy’s saying, brow furrowed, “’cause we’re running out of it, fast.”

Trini’s watching him. And there’s no way she can know, but Zack finds himself avoiding her gaze anyway.

Eventually Alpha 5 shows them the zords, and Zordon loses his temper at them, all on schedule. It’s when they’re all filing out of the caves that Zack finally starts to wake up.

“See you,” he says, as they all head off in different directions, and then he just stands there for a while, watches them go.

Then he follows Billy home. Stakes out on a lamppost by his house, and settles in to wait.

He’s just beginning to doze off when he hears it. A muffled crash in the dead of night. Heart racing, Zack slides off the streetlamp and sneaks around the side of the house. There’s a handy shovel propped up against the wall, and he grabs it with sweaty palms. Climbs up the drainpipe and peers into the open window of the bedroom, where Rita Repulsa has Billy pinned to the wall by the point of her spear.

“Oh, _hell_ no,” Zack says, and vaults in over the windowsill.

“Zack?” Billy wheezes from Rita’s chokehold. “What—what are you doing here?”

“Saving your ass,” Zack tells him. He brandishes the shovel at Rita. “Get the fuck away from him!”

“How amusing,” Rita says. It’s annoying, because she looks like she means it, mouth curling into a smile. Eyes flashing with a glimmer of the last thing Zack’d expected: thrill. “A knight in shining armor, I presume? Here to defeat me in righteous battle?”

“God, do you ever shut the hell up,” Zack says. “Some righteous battle—he’s in his _pajamas_ , come on, this isn’t a fair fight.”

“Uh, Zack,” Billy says, voice cracking. “Maybe don’t tell the alien who’s got a spear at my neck to shut up?”

“You’re right,” Rita says, ignoring him completely. “This isn’t a fair fight at all. In fact, it’s not even a fight. Merely a friendly proposition.”

“Listen, we don’t know where your stupid crystal is,” Zack says. He’s gaining confidence with every second he’s still alive. Usually he barely gets twenty seconds into the confrontation. The metal handle of the shovel is slick with cooling sweat in his palms; he jabs it at her, chin raised. “So you’ll have to look elsewhere. Or we’ll have to stop you, I swear. All of us.”

“We?” Rita repeats. Laughter in her voice. “All of you? Oh, dear. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, my friend, but you’re the only ones left.”

Zack’s blood runs cold. “What did you say?”

“Let’s see,” Rita says, tapping a fingernail against her chin. “First was Yellow Ranger. She was my favourite, you know. Held _so_ much potential. But she just kept on insisting that none of you knew anything, even when I tried to cut her a little deal. Funny—she just wouldn’t believe it. Eventually it all got rather annoying, so I had to put her down. A shame, really. Then the others—Pink Ranger, quaking in her boots. Red Ranger—the most fun, by far. His fear was _delicious,_ though he tried valiantly to hide it. Noble to the end. I suppose it’s a good thing you’re here, Black Ranger—you’ve spared me the effort of tracking you down.”

“You killed them?” Billy rasps. Eyes wide.

“I killed _all_ of them,” Rita says, “and I’ll kill you, too, unless you tell me where the Zeo Crystal is, right now.” She nudges the point of her spear under Billy’s chin, and a thought cuts through Zack’s shock— _that should be me._ “Well? What’s it going to be?”

“No,” Zack says, voice numb in his throat. No—this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen.

Except—all of this _already_ happened, that first time—that very first day, and he hadn’t even known it, had slept on through the end of the world—

Zack lunges forward with the shovel. Rita’s spear is there to meet him, snapping around impossibly fast, a flash of green in the darkness, winking out into the night. The only lasting thing the conviction: _it wasn’t supposed to be like this—_

 

**07**

Zack wakes up. Gets dressed, puts on his shoes, and goes down to the docks.

“I’m here!” he yells, startling seagulls and strangers alike. “It’s me, the Black goddamn Ranger, I know where the Zeo Crystal is—”

A flash of green in the darkness. She comes out of the shadows to slam him against a stack of crates on the dock, forearm pinning him down by the throat. “Black Ranger,” she coos at him. “How interesting. You’re not who I expected. Here to join the winning side?”

He bares his teeth at her. “Yeah, I am,” he says, and he slips the switchblade out from under his sleeve, slides it into her gut.

Or he tries to. Her laughter slithers around him as he’s thrown bodily out of her grip and across the docks. Unforgiving wood smacks against his forehead, and he blinks down at the water below, blurring before his eyes.

“My dear _boy,_ ” Rita says, the word a sneer on her lips. Cluck of her tongue in disappointment. “Did you really think it was going to be that easy?”

Zack rolls over onto his back, just in time for her boot to come down on his chest. He winces. Blood in his mouth.

“The crystal,” Rita says, prodding her spear at his neck. “Where is it?”

“Get a new line, why don’t you,” Zack says. “This is getting old.”

She narrows her eyes at him. “How disappointing,” she says.

“I try,” Zack says.

“I suppose I’ll just have to make an example out of you,” she says, and Zack closes his eyes, thinks, _please—_

 

**08**

Zack wakes up. Goes back to bed.

When he wakes again, late afternoon sun is filtering through his windowblinds. He gets dressed, puts on his shoes, and goes down to the caves.

“You’re late,” Jason says. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “Where were you?”

“I was having the craziest dream,” Zack says. There’s a smile on his face he can’t feel. “Where were you?”

“What are you talking about?” Jason says. “I was here, with everyone else, like we’re supposed to be. Like we agreed to, remember? Or have you forgotten?”

“If only,” Zack says. Earth and fire. Flash of green at his throat. Billy’s eyes, wide in the dark: _you killed them?_

“What is wrong with you?” Jason says, and he looks pissed off as hell, now. Everyone does, except for Billy, maybe, nervously eyeing the eleven notches scratched into the rock wall.

“Do you even care,” Kimberly says, eyes narrowed. “God, we’re definitely doomed.”

“What’s your problem,” Trini says, and she’ll barely even look at him, and that’s what does it.

“I’m the problem,” Zack says, “no, actually, my problem is that it’s me, my problem is that it isn’t you. Why not _you_ —” He jabs a finger at each of them in turn. “And why me? Why am I the cosmic joke of the universe? If you want it so bad, why isn’t this yours? Or are you in on the joke, too?”

“What are you talking about,” Jason says, face all twisted up in confusion, and it’s funny so Zack doubles over, laughter stinging his throat, the hollow of his chest.

“I get it,” Zack says between heaving breaths, “I get it now. You’re all in on it. Aren’t you? Good joke. You got me.”

They’re staring at him like they don’t recognize him at all. Like he’s a stranger.

“You got me,” Zack repeats.

They snap to attention when he turns to leave. “Where are you going,” Kimberly says, “you can’t be _giving up_ on us—”

“Fine, asshole,” Trini says. That’s betrayal on her face, clear as day. “If you don’t want to be here.”

“You can’t just leave,” Billy says, “we need you—”

“Zack,” Jason says, and Zack remembers being hauled off the roof of a moving car, hand clenched in his and not letting go. “Zack. Is there something you’re not telling us?”

Zack doesn’t look back.

But in the quiet of his room he remembers—the Yellow Ranger, first. He’s got to help Trini somehow, never mind that his attempt to do the same for Billy was about as effective as stabbing an angry tiger with a toothpick. And Trini—hadn’t believed, that’s what Rita said, but maybe if he’s there—if he can help, if he can show her he’s a part of this too, then maybe they can do—something. Anything at all, he’s thinking, when the floor creaks behind him.

“Black Ranger,” Rita Repulsa says sweetly in his ear.

Zack whirls around, but he’s too late. The point of her spear nestles under his chin, forces him to shuffle backwards in his socked feet until his back hits the wall. Like a pinned insect, he thinks, and then: _wait, this is wrong—_

“You know, I see myself in you,” Rita says, and Zack physically recoils. “I was an outsider on Zordon’s team, just like you.”

“No,” Zack says, the force of it a heaving gasp. “No way.”

“So why don’t I cut you a little deal, my friend,” Rita says. “I’ll spare your life. All I need to know is where to find the Zeo Crystal.”

Zack looks at her. There really isn’t anything in her eyes, he thinks, nothing but a distant darkness that renders her oddly still, like a statue, like something long past dead. He takes in a breath, clotted with the stench of seawater and old dirt—and laughs.

“You can’t,” he says, throat scraped raw and laughing still. He tips his head back against the wall, closes his eyes. “You can’t be serious. There is nothing you could do to me to make me scared of you, not anymore.”

He cracks open an eye. Rita is staring at him, unblinking. Head cocked slightly, as though considering it. Considering him.

“Is that so,” she says.

_Go ahead,_ Zack thinks, the thought unravelling itself like string in his mind, running through his whole body in relief. _Go ahead and kill me. You’ve done it all the times before. It’s nothing new._ He’s still laughing when Rita extends a finger, and the door to his mother’s bedroom creaks ever so slightly open.

He tells her everything.

 

**09**

Zack wakes up. Prepares his mom’s medicine and breakfast and knocks on her door.

“Hey, ma,” he says. “I’m sick.”

She must know better than to believe him by now, but she still allows him to pretend. “Come on,” she says, “come here.” She’s smiling, and Zack almost trips over his own feet on his way over because he can’t take his eyes off her.

They clean the entire trailer, play six games of chess, eat frozen dumplings for dinner. At one point his phone falls off the table from the amount of calls he’s receiving. He turns it off without checking the screen. They watch television all night propped up in her bed, old serial dramas that he can only recognize by sound, understanding the story through the expressions on the actors’ faces.

“As long as I’m in this loop,” Zack says after a while, “you’re still alive.”

“What was that?” his mom says, next to him.

“Nothing,” Zack says, and if his voice cracks just a little, she doesn’t mention it. “G’night, ma.”

He falls asleep on her lap, which hasn’t happened since he was a kid. Just before slipping under he can feel her press her lips to the crown of his head like a blessing.

 

**10**

Zack wakes up in his own bed. Can’t quite remember his dream. There is a memory of warmth on his forehead, though, and he takes it with him all through the day, as he surrenders to the fall off the cliffs.

“Guys,” he announces, as soon as he steps into the caves. “I have to tell you something.”

They’re staring at him, as usual. “What?” Jason says. An ugly bruise on his jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown. “What is it?”

“I’m from the future,” Zack says, in as serious of a voice he can muster. “I know everything that’s going to happen.”

“Oh, for god’s sake,” Kimberly says, rolling her eyes. “Do we really have the time for jokes like this?”

“No, for real,” Zack says. “I know that Alpha 5’s gonna come over and show us our zords, which are huge machine dinosaurs we’re gonna use to fight Rita. He’s gonna show it to us because he thinks it’ll help get us to morph, but it won’t work, and Zordon’s gonna kick us out for failing. Don’t believe me? Hey, Alpha 5! Tell them I’m right!”

All eyes turn to Alpha 5, whose empty glowing stare confirms everything. “How could you know that?” he says.

“I told you,” Zack says. Smirk on his face. “I’m from the future. I know everything.”

“This is unprecedented,” Zordon’s saying, but no one’s paying any attention to him. Instead they’re clustered around Zack, all talking at once.

“Okay,” Trini says. “The superpowers, the aliens, the spaceship—I could roll with those. But time travel is kind of... out there, don’t you think?”

“It’s like Back to the Future,” Billy says, wide-eyed. “Oh, man, are you even _Zack,_ or are you, like, Zack’s future great-great-grandson possessing his body—”

“If you’re from the future,” Jason says, “then that means we win. Right?”

Everyone falls silent. Zack looks them in the eye and smiles.

“Sure do,” he says.

“I knew it!” Billy exclaims. “We did it—I mean, we’re gonna do it—we’re superheroes, we're _awesome_ —”

“If we had time travel powers this whole time then what the hell were we worrying for,” Kimberly says. She looks like she’s struggling to decide between showing relief and disappointment, not realizing that she’s pretty much already given up both on her face.

“How do we do it?” Jason says. “I mean, that’s why you’re here, right? You’re here to tell us how to defeat Rita?”

“Yeah, sure,” Zack says. “Hey, d’you guys wanna get out of here?”

They end up at the Krispy Kreme, taking up an entire booth. “Go on, ask me anything,” Zack says, slurping his milkshake.

“Like what,” Billy says. “I don’t feel good about this—we shouldn’t _know_ the future, man, that’s not how it works—”

“C’mon,” Zack says. “Don’t you want to know that you become a famous inventor and strike it rich?”

Billy’s jaw drops. “What—no way—”

“Sure,” Zack says. “And _you—_ ” he points at Jason “—become a pro football player and girls line up to throw themselves at your feet every time you walk out the door of your mansion to grace Manhattan Beach with your presence, and _you—_ ” Kimberly “—get lost for two months backpacking in the Amazon and when you miraculously emerge you score your own book deal and Lifetime movie, and _you—_ ” He stops. Trini stares back at him, unimpressed.

“Who knows,” Zack says eventually. “We lost touch.”

“Oh, really,” Trini says. “And what about you?”

“What?”

“Where are you at, in the future?”

Blood in his mouth. “Oh, me,” Zack says, through his smile. “I’m nowhere.”

“Huh,” Trini says. “You know what I think? I think you’re a liar, and you’re crazy, and there’s something very wrong with you.”

Zack thinks about it. “You’re not wrong,” he decides.

“What the hell, Zack!” Jason hisses from across the table. “What was this, some kind of prank? Why would you do this?”

“God, we’re definitely doomed,” Kimberly says.

“We should be training right now,” Billy says, “we gotta use all the time we can, ’cause we’re running out if it, fast.”

“Oh, come on,” Zack says, “I got you, didn’t I, for a moment there—” They’re staring at him, incredulous, and he backtracks. “Look—guys, it’s okay. It’s okay. None of this matters anyway.”

“Like _hell_ it doesn’t!”

“It’s not real,” Zack tries to explain, and he can tell how crazy it sounds coming from his mouth right now, but they’ve got to understand— “none of you are real, see? None of us are real. We’re stuck in this time loop, over and over again, and the real Zack—the real _us_ —they’re out there somewhere actually getting shit done. We’re just... here. We’re just here, and I just wanted—I mean, we’ve died so many times now and I just thought—we should be friends. We should be friends first, right?”

Zack looks at them, and only then does it strike him—they already _are_ friends. Jason and Billy, Kimberly and Trini. Staring at him from the other side of the table.

“Shit,” he says.

“Zack,” Trini says, voice trembling, “what the hell aren’t you telling us,” and the way she’s looking at him reminds him of—a thought he’d had, once— _long past dead—_

His hands are shaking. He takes them off the table and puts them on his lap. “She’s going to come for me again,” Zack says, lips numb. “It’s gonna be me, again. I don’t want—I can’t go back home, she can’t find me there—”

“Zack, what are you _talking_ about,” Kimberly says. “Zack. Are you okay?”

“Zack, what’s going on,” Jason says.

“Wait,” Billy says, very slowly, “wait. Zack. Why are we here?”

A rumble, in the distance.

“Oh, Zack,” Billy says. He looks crestfallen. “You knew, and you led her _here?_ ”

Blood in his mouth. “I didn’t,” Zack says, “I didn’t mean to, there was nowhere else to go—”

The shatter of the windows from the outside in, and all the others duck for cover, but Zack knows what's coming. Sits there in stillness, and watches the flash of green bear down upon him like the point of a spear.

 

**11**

Zack wakes up and considers it.

“Nah,” he says, aloud.

He prepares his mom’s medicine and breakfast. Gets dressed, puts on his shoes, and starts walking.

The suburbs are quiet. He may as well be invisible as he makes his way through town, and he has to wonder why on earth he’s had to try so hard to stay unseen. Not like anyone’s looking anyway. Strangers passing by on the sidewalk, yellowed grass under his feet, everything parting for him, his way out.

Only when Angel Grove is an afterthought in the distance does someone stop for him, thumb held out on the side of the highway. “Where to,” the trucker says.

Zack shrugs. “Anywhere but here.”

Cheek pressed up against the glass of the passenger window, Zack imagines he’s outracing the sun across the sky. He dozes off for a while and has no idea where he is when he wakes up. Looks like the sun beat him while he was sleeping.

“Cheater,” he tells it.

At the next rest area Zack stumbles out of the truck. He only means to stretch his legs, but the air tastes different here, clear and on the verge of cold, sweet enough to get drunk on. Surely this isn’t the same world he left behind. Surely nothing can follow him here. He breaks into a run just to feel the wind in his hair, yells out a whoop against the soreness of his throat.

In the distance, through the tall grass, he finds a pond. Surface like a sheet of glass reflecting everything around it. He squats there for a long while, skipping stones just to watch them ripple the water, until the sun starts to set. Gold dusting his shoulders, fingertips, the back of his neck. Just another day that’s outlasted him. Waiting for him to have something to show.

He skips another stone. Conjures a thought of his mom, smiling, reaching for him. _Zack,_ she says. _Are you ready to come home?_

“Yeah,” Zack says. “Sure.”

After all, there’s nowhere else to go.

He leaves the stone sinking behind him and starts the impossible trek back. He makes it an hour and a half before the horizon before him lights up like a pyre, and the earth cracks itself open at his feet, welcoming him home.

 

**12**

Zack wakes up. Can’t quite remember his dream. It’s probably for the best.

He goes to school, and observes everything around him with a detached sort of curiosity. It’s as though there’s something new in the air; everything’s gained a fine layer of unreality, settling over the world like a veil. It all streams past him like background noise: the wood of the desk under his palms, the stiffness of his chair, the chatter in the hallways. He claps his hands together once just to hear the sound, just to convince himself he’s still there, and finds the rest of the class staring at him.

“Oops,” Zack says, and the teacher doesn’t even blink. Just points for him to get out.

In the caves he shows up late just for old times’ sake. “You’re literally arriving at the exact same time as I am,” Trini says, and it feels good, to have her look at him like that, without anything heavier behind it. They fall down the cliffs together, and Zack makes it just in time to catch Jason as he’s sent flying into the wall by the force of Kimberly’s fist.

“You good?” Zack says. It doesn’t really matter, he knows, but he’s tired of seeing that ugly bruise on Jason’s jaw, highlighting the downward slant of his frown, like he’s begging to be hurt. He’s tired of all this.

But Jason doesn’t even blink. “You’re late,” he says.

“We gotta use all the time we can,” Billy’s saying, brow furrowed, “’cause we’re running out of it, fast.” Eleven notches on the wall.

Everything the same, and Zack still stuck on the wrong side of the glass. “Sure,” he says, his voice distant. Time—that’s what they’re running out of. “Yeah.”

It all comes to a head when Alpha 5 shows them the zords. “What you find behind this wall,” he says, “will forever change your lives.” And Zack’s still stuck on that as the others are heading back to continue training, walking away as he stares up at the row of zords, silent unblinking machines standing over him like gods, unmoved and empty.

“You were supposed to change my life,” he tells them, and he starts to climb.

Later, in the terrifying rush and the fall, the world a dizzying blur before his eyes, Zack can almost feel it: he’s alive, he’s really alive, and he’s so close to piercing the veil, to breaking through to the other side. Opening his mouth in an endless scream, louder than anything else because he’s _alive,_ he’s real, and he’s gonna live forever—

Of course it ends in rubble. It always does. It ends with the others staring at him again, Jason with that bruise twisting his mouth, turning it ugly. “What’s your _problem_ ,” he says. “You could’ve killed yourself, or us—”

That’s the point, Zack thinks. That’s the point.

“It doesn’t matter,” he says, and then there’s a fist in his face. Zack’s faintly stunned by the blow, hand coming up to feel at his jaw, his nose. Blood in his mouth. The shock of it lighting him up, reminding him: _you’re real—_

An awful grin splits his face. He lunges forward, chasing the fight, that flash of real feeling—

“Stop it,” someone’s shouting, and then everything changes.

The rubble, the caves. Collapsing into each other. In the middle of it all is Billy, eyes squeezed shut, arms held out protectively, as though waiting to be hit. Sheathed head to toe in brilliant blue.

“What?” Billy says. “I got something on my face?”

Zack feels as though he’s been struck blind. All he can see is blue. The grin of awe on Billy’s face. It’s been so long—it’s been _so long_ since he’s seen Billy smile.

And then it’s gone, the boom of Zordon’s voice telling them all to go home, but Zack can’t move, can’t even breathe. Rooted to the ground with the realization. The veil lifted, revealing the answer even as the others are turning away, starting to leave, and he can’t—he can’t let them go. Because he’s seen it, now. The world, changed, made real once more.

“Wait,” Zack says. It comes out a croak, the first time, so he wets his lips, tries again. “Guys.” And they don’t remember—they don’t remember how he’s hurt them, not in this one, so they wait for him. “Look. I’m gonna stay here tonight, make a fire. I got some food. If you guys wanna stay—” He swallows. “If you wanna stay—”

Another miracle: they do.

In the grass, surrounded by firelight, by the laughter of the four of them, Zack can feel the time slipping through his fingers like sand. Billy was right. He’s running out of it, his chance to make this last. The answer. What was it they had asked of him— _Zack, what aren’t you telling us—_

He looks at them. And he doesn’t know how it goes, how they get past this, what they’re capable of. Billy, burning blue, under the earth. Like he’d been good for it, all this time.

“Maybe it’s ’cause we don’t know each other,” Zack says, and they’re all looking at him, now. Waiting for him to have something to show.

He’d thought he’d tried everything. But turns out there’s always something more to give.

“My name’s Zack,” he says. “And I’m a Power Ranger.”

And there’s a thrill to it, to getting the ball rolling into motion, but maybe he’d expected too much, because all of it still falls apart eventually. “Are we friends,” Trini says, and Zack can’t lie, not now, when he’s already given up everything. Just watches them all go in their separate directions, disappearing into the night.

This was worth something, he tells himself. The campfire still burning before him. Something changed. It was different. It’ll be different, this time.

He clings onto that hope all the way to Trini’s house.

When Rita Repulsa shows up, it takes everything in him to not burst in. Come on, Yellow Ranger, he thinks, watching from his streetlamp, what was it you said to me, come on, _fight—_

“We can have a deal, my friend,” Rita says, and Trini holds her tongue. Watches her go with narrowed eyes. Zack thinks he recognizes that look. It feels like belief.

And they get so close—closer than Zack’d ever have thought possible—but it’s all the same, in the end: a flash of green in the darkness, the sing of metal at his neck. Only the setting’s different, the water under his feet, the sway of the ship with a terrible lurch, back and forth. “Three,” Rita says, “two,” and Billy gives, wide-eyed; of course he does, it’s the first time for him, and Zack hadn’t _warned_ him, stupid—he hadn’t told him the truth—

“Don’t hurt my friends,” Billy’s saying, and Zack clenches his eyes shut because he can’t bear to watch.

Only the world tilts itself on its head one more time. Billy plunges down into the water, leaving Zack to stare after him in horror, because _it wasn’t supposed to be like this—_ it’s supposed to be him so that everything can reset, he’s not supposed to _survive,_ to be staring down at Billy’s unmoving body on the pier—

“Help me pick him up,” Kimberly shouts, face wet with tears, and Zack snaps into action, _go on, then, go on and deal with what you’ve done,_ and still a small part of him stuck on the fact that he’d thought they’d finally been getting it _right_ —

“He traded his life for us,” Kimberly says, in the cold of the cave, everything around them turned silver in the night, and Zack says without thinking, “Yeah, he did.”

They’re watching him. He watches back. You do, Zack thinks, with something like wonder. All of you do, every time. You’ve died for this world so many times over, and you don’t even know it, don’t even know what you’re capable of, but I do.

“I would, too,” he says, quietly. Like it must mean something, too.

“This is the only thing that matters,” Kimberly says, and they hold it between the five of them like a secret. Hushed in the revelation of what they’ve discovered.  

It feels like forgiveness.

And then Billy opens his eyes, and Zack knows: there is nothing that can stop them, now.

 

**00**

Zack wakes up. Can’t quite remember his dream, so he lets it go. He stares up at the ceiling and doesn’t get out of bed. Doesn’t peer out the window, can’t bring himself to check, because the thought paralyzes him: what if none of it had meant anything at all—

And what if it had? What if the day had gone forward, set him free? What then? He’s lived a loop for so long that the thought of going on beyond this is suddenly unbearable. It makes him sick. How can he go on, now that there’s more of it, the mountains and the trees and the sunlight through the blinds, all of it neverending, on and on—

His phone is lighting up with messages. _Meet under the bleachers b4 school? Cya there. im here where are u guys. Zack, are you coming? cmon zack. CMON ZACK WE GOT FOOD. zack? u there?_

At school the office secretary asks why he’s so late and he shrugs. Takes the detention slip.

“Attention,” the teacher’s saying. The room’s mostly full, kids crowded around phones playing video footage of yesterday’s fight, all talking over each other at once. But four faces light up when Zack walks in, slides out a chair, sits down.

He does know them, he thinks. The way Kimberly looks in battle, Trini’s laugh rare as gold. Billy, blue.

“You’re late,” Jason says. The bruise on his jaw is beginning to heal.

The sun coming in through the windows, alighting on Zack’s grin. All of it neverending, on and on.

“Yeah,” Zack says. “Yeah, I am. But I’m here now.”

Later that afternoon they head to the caves, together. Zack leans over the side of the cliff, contemplates the fall. Shoots Trini a look.

“Loser buys the donuts,” he says, and jumps. Eyes wide open against the rush of wind, the future that rises up to meet him. The wonder and the promise. The world, changed.

She still ends up beating him to the ship. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> yeah this was entirely an indulgent excuse to 1) write a zack-centric version of the story 2) write time loop fic bc it's the most fun shit in the world 3) dismantle why, exactly, zack shouted all his secrets into the night like a desperate man throwing his last lifeline out to sea
> 
> so if you've read this far... thanks lmao


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